"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

“If Romney gets the nomination and we reach late September with Romney leading the polls, what do you think the Democrat-Media Complex will do? Whatever It Takes to Win, sweetheart.
“Can’t you see the five-part New York Times series on the history of Mormonism? Can’t you see Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News and David Gregory on Meet the Press doing Serious Journalism about all the beliefs and practices of the LDS, and ponderously asking What It Means for America?”
— Robert Stacy McCain, March 6, 2012

“Now that Democrats are near-certain that Romney is the nominee, however, the media is going to start covering Mitt’s Mormonism in a very serious way — ‘Oh, look, he’s a fringe kook!’ — as if this were an entirely legitimate topic of political discussion.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, April 2

“Now part of Romney’s religion problem is that he’s a part of a new religion. Established religions like Judaism, which is about 4,000 years old, and Christianity, which is about 2,000 years old, don’t easily warm up to new religions like Romney’s, which is only 182 years old. . . . Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it. Forty-eight wives later, Joseph Smith’s lifestyle was completely sanctified in the religion he invented to go with it. Which Mitt Romney says he believes.”
— Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, April 3

And my friends, this has just barely begun. That little shot from O’Donnell? It was like the signal gun to start a massive barrage.

Maybe you have never done any research into the history of Mormonism. Maybe you have no idea how much material there is to work with. Maybe you are unaware of how many ex-Mormons and other critics of Mormonism have already gotten in touch with national news producers and reporters, eager to help them with “research” for all those in-depth feature articles and multi-part series about the LDS church.

If you don’t know any of that stuff, you can be forgiven for thinking that any negative media focus on Mitt Romney’s religion would automatically be seen as unfair and bigoted by independent voters. But just wait and see: If Romney actually does win the Republican nomination, and if it ever appears that Mitt poses a serious threat to Obama’s re-election, then the gloves will come off and you will be disabused of your naïveté.

You know who’s going to be shocked the worst by this? Agnostic secularists, whose general attitude toward religious belief is, “What difference does it make which discredited superstition somebody claims to believe in? All religions are equally false, right?”

A lot of the agnostic secularists in the GOP have that kind of attitude, and can’t imagine that there is anything about Mormonism that might be truly offensive to people.

Of Romney’s religion, Gregory said Mormonism was at the core of Romney’s character, but suggested he was afraid to talk about it.
“Let’s be honest, this is the core of who Mitt Romney is,” he said. “He was a missionary in France for two years. He has been a bishop in the church, which, in the Mormon church, is effectively like a a priest. Philanthropically, he’s made huge contributions. He’s had a big impact on the church. And yet he doesn’t talk about it. It’s the core of who he is, and yet he doesn’t feel like it’s safe to talk about.”

Comments

Bring it on, I say. Let us have a national discussion about the difference between being a practicing Mormon and attending an African Klan rally every Sunday for twenty years and having your kids “baptized” by a Grand Wizard and having your weeding ceremony presided over by that same hate-filled, shit-eating bigot.

Bring it the hell on. I can’t f###ing wait.

ThomasD

You also forgot to mention that, for the majority of Catholic voters (of which there are substantially more than Mormon voters), the Opus Dei stuff is a non-issue. Either because they do not see it as being a major element of the religion, or because they are already familiar with it, and know there is nothing to fear there.

It’s a numbers game – anti Mormonism doesn’t cost you nearly as many votes as anti Catholicism would.

ThomasD

His super PAC is peanuts compared to the MSM – every time they try to put out a meme the media will destroy it and then dump the smoldering wreckage directly in Romney’s lap.

They’ll learn their lesson after one or two tries.

http://twitter.com/s_dog spot_the_dog

“You seem to have completely missed the point, which is that democrats care less about a candidate’s faith, and more about the issues.”

Because nothing says “We couldn’t care less about candidates’ faith! We only care about the ISSUES!” than spending as much time and effort as Democrats do trashing GOP/conservative pollies for their faith…

Seriously mate, I know Lefties who are still trying to sell the plastic turkey that Bush only invaded Iraq because God told him to [hurr hurr hurr… stoopid God-people]. Meanwhile Obama himself openly ridicules millions of Christian Americans for “clinging to their Bibles”. KNUCKLE-DRAGGING MOUTH-BREATHERS, amirite?

So. “Democrats care less about a candidate’s faith, and more about the issues”? Yeah. Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so.

Emanual Zimmerman

Look who thinks she can counter the progressive narrative du jour…

ThomasD

Forget the personal appeal.

When you combine his blow dried look, and etch a sketch approach to principles with the establishment ramming him down our throats he has managed to make himself unappealing to the base.

And those are the very people he would need, out in public going door to door, and civic meeting to civic meeting, generating real push back to what Axelrod and the MSM have planned.

Conservatives know he’s not one of them, and they certainly don’t want to take ownership for him or what he ‘stands’ for.

No, Team Romney and the GOPE have managed to royal piss those people off.

Here’s my stock response to such things: Distraction. Whenever a liberal brings up stupid crap like this, expecting me to go into damage control mode, I simply say “Distraction. Now let’s focus on Obama’s policy failures and his incompetency.” I’m at the point where these types of “concerns” are barely speed bumps. No matter what, BO MUST be defeated in November!

ThomasD

So we can replace him with a guy who claims to be one of us, yet cannot abide by anything we stand for?

The other point is that the Catholics already surrendered in the recent dustup over the RC providing abortion/insurance to cover abortion. That corpse is twitching, and will pull the lever for Obama in November. Opus Dei is just a bogeyman to frighten the Agnostics and high schoolers who want to vote.

DaveO

MSNBC may not know about Obama’s father, or the Luo. Those folks who actually pay attention to MSNBC (which is increasingly a conservative audience seeking outrage – even progressives know it’s garbage) won’t learn about it either.

DaveO

Whether Romney loses or wins the Presidency, the first group to get tarred and feathered ought to be the Republican Establishment.